Uranus vs Hephaestus

Recap

Uranus, oh Uranus. Definitely the God that I heard more about than any other. The most notable was when I first suggested the Gods/Goddesses idea to Spike, and he said something like “everyone’s gonna want Uranus”. And the second best was Nate Warden, who had the last pick of Gods in the draft and was terribly worried that he would get stuck with Uranus. So people clearly have a love/hate relationship with Uranus.

Most of the titans whose powers you’ll be playing with every week, they’re dad was Uranus. So he was a pretty big deal. And as you can see, I’m trying really hard to legitimately say the word Uranus as much as possible, cause I’m a 13 year old boy.

So let’s get to the one game played last night, the first at John Adams Middle School in Santa Monica. It was a huge coup to get that field for Summer League. But unfortunately not without issue, which I’ll explain in a later post. But for now, here’s Ethan Lacoe of Uranus:

The game started with a minor controversy. We flipped and Hephaestus chose to receive. Once we had 7 on the line, we called out that we were using the power to reverse the pull. This was my team’s power in summer league last year. Hephaestus argued that since there was no previous point to “forget”, we shouldn’t be allowed to use it on the first point. It’s a valid argument. Our argument was simple. We never had an issue using the power to reverse a pull at any point last season, since there was no backstory behind the power. Also, since it can be used at the mirror half, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can only use it to “forget the last point” because the last point going into half could have been the opponent scoring. Anyways, Hephaestus was gracious and let us use it. Ultimately it didn’t matter. They threw a zone on us and broke us. Then they broke us again. 2-0 Hephaestus. Some of the younger guys on the team had never played against a zone before, so it took a while to adjust, but they learned quickly. Uranus adjusted and tied it up. After trading points Uranus took half 8-7. In the second half, Uranus came out strong. Great defensive plays. More patience against the zone. Uranus took a 12-8 lead. They used the other power and ran with the disc, making some nice juke moves and ultimately scoring on a nice run up the line. 12-10. Final score was 14-10 Uranus. No bar for us tonight. We have four players who can’t even vote yet.

Some of the highlights for Uranus:

1. KJ completing an insane full field huck to Andy, who went completely horizontal for the layout, leaving Andy with turf burns on both arms.
2. Battle of the injured left arm/hand: Adam hucked it to one handed Kate (who completely tore a ligament in her left hand). She made an insane full extension catch over one handed Grant (who is wearing a cast on his dominant left arm and is still playing). The margin for error was so slim. Any higher and it would have flown out the back of the end zone. Any lower and Grant would have D’d it.

3. Tracy making a clutch baseball like sliding catch for a score.
4. Erika catching multiple 15-20 yard chunk gains against the zone.
5. Horace with great marks on the disc, forcing turnovers.
6. Maggie making a perfect read and catching a disc that flew directly over her head on a huge huck from KJ.
7. Barry looking as poised and patient as a veteran handler. Chilly. Good hands. You could see him improving against the zone with every throw.

I really thought that the Running With the Disc power was going to be the one to topple the Reverse the Pull power this week, but Ethan’s team is definitely the one most likely to use the Reverse the Pull power since as he mentioned, that was there’s last year.

The Ethan/Kate/US captain combo that won last year is going for the repeat. Only twice in Summer League history has a Captain repeated as tournament champion, and interestingly both happened in the same years. AJ and Seth’s teams won in 2008 and 2009 in Co-ed, while simultaneously Matt Findley’s teams won both years in Men’s. (Oh, little side note, they were all on Marshall during 2008 when Marshall won Winter League.)

Also Ethan, Kate and US added KChu to their captaining group this year, joining Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Larry, Moe, Curly and Shemp; and the cast of Ghostbusters 2, as successful trios to add a 4th member. (For the record, do not Google famous threesomes, unless your SafeSearch is on.)

And we got another recap from this game a few days after, which is totally fine. I’ll take recaps from last year if you have them. (Well……)

This is Kazaa of Hephaestus:

Here is the recap for our Monday night game against Uranus 😀

Being forced to start late due to a guy in red jacket on a power trip over his middle school domain, Hephaestus (aka hepatitis or hot fire) came out strong winning the first two points. Uranus then called a very serious time out to talk strategy. Meanwhile we played “Yes You May” learning we are not very good at waiting for permission. Uranus then pulled their heads of their anuses and made it into a true game.

Our zone was on fleek rocking multiple devilish threesomes in the cup. Unfortunately for our offense, we loved the away sideline and wouldn’t stop hugging it like a preteen and her Justin Bieber life size cutout. Multiple turnovers were caused by this dark sideline. Overall, it was a fun and exciting game with roaring from the sideline. There was even a mini boxing match between our own Taylor and a younger player on Uranus while they were cutting…but like, the nicest, most respectful, let’s-talk-about-it-and-agree-to-move-on-and-play-cleaner kind of match.

The game was cut off right at 10pm due to the power trip red jacket guy with, unfortunately, Uranus in the lead. Uranus gave a lovely cheer about our amazing zone and we chanted back about them blowing gas out their white assmotsphere. (Just taking this moment to point out that Uranus is not actually white, but rather blue. It is surrounded by gas though, so we got that right at least.

After the game we announced again that there would be a post game celebration at The Daily Pint down the street. More than half of Hephaestus showed up while NONE of Uranus came: I think we all know who the better team really is. HOT FIRE THROWN.

I love the Daily Pint! Haven’t been there in ages. They’ve very particular about their billiards rules, and I’ve seen some sick foosball players there. Like Olympic level.